What movie did you just watch?

[Cshad]

Saw Pacific Rim yesterday and was very disappointed. The trailers wouldn't have had you guess that the movie sets itself up to be Neon Genesis Evangelion meets Gurren Lagann meets Godzilla. This is what ultimately makes the movie so incredibly disappointing - it establishes a premise that would allow for significant psychological insight into the character, and, subsequently, lots and lots of meaningful character development, and then fails to follow through. Unfortunately, all of the characters are flat and static and delegate themselves to stereotypes and tropes. This makes every single waking moment the movie uses to explore these characters incredibly painful and boring to watch. That is not to say they do not have their moments, though - there are a few interesting scenes that demonstrate the chemistry between said characters, or make some characters more interesting, it's just that, despite the effort, none of them are memorable.

The Kaiju and Robot designs were also really disappointing. The robot designs are clunky and top heavy, and the features that distinguish them are non too attractive (imo). The Kaiju were just incredibly boring. For a movie that's supposed to be inspired by Godzilla and Neon Genesis Evangelion, they just...lacked color. And features. Even the worst looking Godzilla Kaiju were colorful with distinguishing appendages and had unique attacks and special powers. Only 1 Kaiju in the entire movie actually displays something resembling a special ability and he's promptly killed after the red shirts are decimated. Artistically, it's just, so flipping plain. That was probably the worst part of the movie - the only reason you'll remember any one of those monsters is because they make an allusion to classic Godzilla Kaiju, not because they actually had any memorable color schemes, abilities, or designs. It's more like "this thing grew wings and looks like Rodan now".

HOWEVER the movie was still cool action wise. The actions scenes (while some of them could have been better) were well directed and easy to read (most of the time). There isn't much to say about them - it's a giant robot action movie. Of course the action scenes are going to be amazing. Still, though, I feel like they can't compare to the animes it drew inspiration from - Gurren Lagann, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gundam and even classical Godzilla battle scenes are so much more dynamic, inspired, and innovative, I'm just used to something that is so much...more.

This movie will appeal to Godzilla fans more than it will Mecha Anime fans, imo. And I'm both.